Tuesday, 24 March 2009

Barren Strawberry - Potentilla sterilis - has opened. The photograph shows most of the identification features: a small notch in the outer edge of the petal, gaps between the petals, and the final tooth in the leaf is shorter than its neighbours.

Single specimens of new moths keep arriving at light. This is Twin-spotted Quaker - Orthosia munda:

Friday, 20 March 2009

I was out looking for hoverflies - unsuccessfully, as it turned out - when this queen Bumblebee flew over my head and immediately started to rummage in the hedge base, looking for a nesting site:

I rattled off a few shots and a closer look reveals her to be a queen Bombus cryptarum - a recent segregate from Bombus lucorum. The notch in the yellow collar is the clue:

I have been watching the parasitic bumblebee Bombus bohemicus over the last couple of years. This is known to be a parasite of Bombus lucorum, but I wonder if it's also a parasite of Bombus cryptarum, which appears to be the dominant white-tailed species in this location.

Monday, 16 March 2009

This is the time of year to keep an eye out for the solitary bee Andrena clarkella, since it feeds its young entirely on Willow pollen. The pollen is available for perhaps 6 weeks of the year, so the bee is rarely seen since it spends 46 weeks of the year underground. Look for bees that look like shrunken and skinny Carder Bumblebees.

Sunday, 1 March 2009

I was investigating Hartstongue Fern for micromoth activity today, and I was moderately successful, finding some inconclusive micromoth damage to some spore sori (the moth larva had left the scene, so no id was possible).

I did find, however, the following item growing between two sori:

Instinct tells me it's fungal. I then examined it more closely and found that the white fungus is surrounding what looks like the corpse of a spider:

I brought it back to the study, so I'll get it under magnification tomorrow. Early research shows that there are some species of Entomophthora that attack spiders, so I'll check that line of reasoning, too.